The Best Presidents of the 20th century
1) Ronald Reagan - launched a massive military buildup and teamed up with Pope John Paul II to bring down the Soviet Union. Tax cuts spurred the economy but high government spending, mostly on defense, caused record deficits. While Reagan’s foreign policy was brilliant, his economic policy was only partially successful. The biggest reason for this was the democrats controlled the House of Representatives for Reagan's entire presidency and many economic reforms Reagan wanted to make were were blocked by the House.
While the political left enjoyed ridiculing Reagan’s intellect, Ronald Reagan was always a step ahead of his opponents. He was president of the Screen Actors Guild for seven terms, (1947-59.) He led that union successfully through major upheavals (the Hollywood communist wars, labor-management struggles); discovered and honed his ability to speak persuasively by talking to workers on the line at General Electric for eight years; was elected governor of California twice; challenged and almost unseated an incumbent president of his own party; (Gerald Ford in 1976) and went on to popularize modern conservative political philosophy without the help of a conservative infrastructure. Then he was elected president in 1980.
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In May 1981, with the American auto industry mired in recession, the Reagan administration strong-armed Japan’s government into agreeing to “Voluntary export restraints” that allowed only 1.68 million Japanese cars into the U.S. each year. This forced Japan to build manufacturing plants in America, creating thousands of new jobs.
2) Franklin Roosevelt - his economic policy was not very good and he wasn’t able to end the depression, yet he kept the country together during that time and led us to victory in WWII - two huge accomplishments.
3) John Kennedy - tax cuts spurred the economy to new highs. Kennedy’s indecision resulted in the disastrous Bay of Pigs debacle.
4) Dwight Eisenhower - one of the most underestimated Presidents, Ike ended the Korean War and the economy grew steadily for most of his Presidency.
